Take the Risks
by SirKnightMaxy
Summary: It was never too late to learn, but Sasuke wished he learned of his mistakes sooner than later. With war waging miles away, Sasuke worried that he won't be enough to help Naruto and the others against the Juubi. When presented with a way to go back to redo the faults of his past- is he willing to take the risks? Time Travel, Sasuke-centric, Previously: You Can't Repeat the Past
1. Uchiha Gem

Corpses covered the ground all around the once strong village, everywhere the raven haired teen looked there were lifeless bodies lying on the ground; bodies of fellow shinobi and kunoichi, citizens, loved ones, and friends. Walking over to a body on the side, the teen kneeled down and rolled the body over on its side. It was Ebisu, from what he could tell it looked like his legs were both broken, and his head had a large gash in the back, he mostly died of blood loss. Looking to his left he saw the bodies of Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu, limp on the ground, unmoving, dead. With a heavy sigh the teen stood back up, sparing one last glance at fallen, and walked away.

Looking over the remains of Konoha, the boy saw many bodies littering the ground and destroyed buildings. He saw a few of the surviving people, most of them ANBU, helping move bodies of the dead from the streets. He passed families crying over the loss of a loved one, and fellow shinobi even letting down guarded faces and break into tears at the reality of all that had happened. The great village of Konoha had fallen. It was not long until he found himself back at the ruins that were once the Uchiha Compound.

Ignoring the aching in his heart, Sasuke Uchiha walked through the ruins. As he walked, Sasuke recognized some of the destroyed buildings of the past; the old scroll and weapons shop, the bakery, the old passage into a hidden clearing he would train in with his brother, Itachi. For all the recognitions he had, Sasuke would remember a memory about that place. With every memory came a new smile, but also a heavier heart. Sasuke longed for the days back when things seemed to be perfect for him. He longed for his mother, his father, and most of all, his older brother.

When the truth of the massacre reached his ears, Sasuke had fallen into a rage against Konoha and promised himself to get vengeance on Konoha for what the village had done to his brother. Though, after hearing the words of the past Hokages, Sasuke realized how taking revenge on Konoha was something that he was actually incapable of doing. Konoha was once his home, no it was always his home; he never truly abandoned Konoha as his home no matter how hard he tried to forget about the village when he was with the Snake Sannin. Konoha was always his home and it was his home to stay, but now, his home was gone, destroyed, ruined- dead. Just like everyone he once held close to his heart, no matter how long he tried to deny the emotion he held for his teammates, they were truly close to him and he truly cared for them, but now they were all gone.

When Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts, he found himself standing in front of the front door to his old house- surprising not as destroyed as the rest of the Compound. Visions of the horrors that he witnessed in that house over took his mind, the blood in the floor, his parents' motionless bodies; the cold look in his brother's eyes. Immediately Sasuke shook those thoughts out of his head. That was all in the past, his brother was not a cold blooded murder. He was a loyal Shinobi to Konoha, he was only doing what he was ordered to, he was protecting the entire village from the rest of the Uchiha clan, and he was being nothing but a regular Shinobi. With a deep sigh, Sasuke pressed forwards and entered the house.

As he walked through the house, the floorboards creaked under his weight, not used to having pressure on them after nearly a decade of being left alone to wither away in silence. Sasuke shuffled down the hall, passing the kitchen, family room, and the bathroom. When he reached the end of the hall Sasuke was faced with a fork in his path. To his right were his and his brother's bedrooms, to his left, his parents' room. Not yet feeling brave enough to enter his parents room, Sasuke turned to the right. Reaching the first door Sasuke slowly opened it to reveal his old bed room. A room once full of childhood life and innocence was now cold, dark, and deserted. The floor was worn various holes were scattered randomly around, probably the work of termites or something of the sort. His books were gone as well as his television, taken by thieves he assumed. His bed was worn and covered in a layer of dust, and the rest of his room was covered in in mold, spider webs, and various damages due to weather while a thick musty smell clung to the atmosphere. Before Sasuke shut the door and head further down the hall, he spotted something sticking out from his old closet. Taking a few steps forwards, Sasuke carefully picked up the object; it was a plump green dinosaur. He remembered that his mother had gotten it for him on his fifth birthday, he was so ecstatic to receive it; he would refuse to part with it eve for the shortest amount of time. There was a tug on his heart as he looked at the old childhood toy now; old, moldy, torn in several places, and missing an eye. Still, Sasuke couldn't help but smile at it. Placing it gently on the bed, leaning against the old pillow, Sasuke walked out of the room and closed the door.

Taking a few more steps down the hall, Sasuke came face to face with the door to Itachi's room. Opening the door Sasuke stood in the doorway staring into the empty room. The room was cast in a dark grey tone, it was long past sunset outside and the moon cast an odd shadow into the elder brother's room. The room all in all was very bland, it always had been. His brother wasn't one for showing things off. All he did was train with their father and go on missions. In the deserted room was a single bed, still neatly made despite all the dust and debris that had gathered on top. The floorboards were falling apart and some large chunks were missing. The walls were bare besides from a single calendar and large Uchiha clan symbol above the bed. The shelves that previously held hundreds of scrolls, books, and tombs were now bare, and the closet was open, contents spilling out: some clothes, shoes, and some spare kunai. Next to the bed on a dresser was a single picture, one of just the four of them, all smiling, all happy. It was taken just a week before the massacre. With a weak smile, Sasuke turned out of the room and walked back up the hall.

The walk to his parents' room was dreadful. Even though it was only a short distance away, the memories of what happened there were still fresh in his mind. Stopping in front of the door and breath heavy, Sasuke just stared at it. As a child he has rarely entered his parents' room; the last time he had it was when he first heard the screams and the smell of blood. Taking control of his emotions, Sasuke grabbed hold of the sliding door handle and opened the door.

His parents' bedroom was large, not gigantic, but defiantly larger then both his and his brother's put together. In the middle of the room was a large bed with the traditional Uchiha fan above it, a few dressers- all of which were thoroughly searched and raided as well as the bed stands and closet. Looking over to the sliding doors that lead to the garden outside, Sasuke had to hold back a shiver running down his spine. The rip in the door where is parents' fell though was still there. Some feint splatters of blood were, surprisingly, still visible. The floor where the two of them laid, where they died, still had blood- faint, small, and stained into the floor, but it was still there. No matter how strong of a ninja he was, the memory of his parents' lifeless faces still plagued his thoughts. Avoiding his eyes from looking at the garden door, Sasuke turned back towards his parents' bed.

It was broken, most likely in the fight between his father and Itachi before his father was killed. Looking around the room Sasuke noted that there was nothing of importance there, why he had come, he did not know. His body just moved on its own accord like something in the back of his mind was trying to tell him something, something important. Wanting to let his mind rest Sasuke searched the room- still avoiding his gaze towards the blood stained floor. After about ten minutes of looking around, Sasuke concluded that there was nothing here that could help him. As he went to exit the room, he glanced once more at the large painted Uchiha fan on the wall. That's when he saw it; a single line going right though the entire thing, from ceiling to floor, a slit in the wall itself that was invisible to the eye, but was now seen after the years of weather damage on the seal.

To fully inspect the slit, Sasuke had to push his parents' bed to the side. By doing so, Sasuke noted that one of the floorboards was loose. Pulling it back, Sasuke revealed a small wooden box with a three tomoe Sharingan on it. Inside the box were two pieces of paper, the first one held a single message _'when all else fails, you know what to do'_, the other seemed to hold directions: straight, left, down, and then forwards.

Sasuke wasn't sure what to think of the note. He had a hunch as so what the note was referring to, but he didn't want to rush to conclusions. Slipping the two pieces of paper into his pocket, he put the box where it was and turned towards the slit wall. He stared at it intently for quite some time, trying to figure out a way he could get past it. He could always break down the wall, but there was a high possibility that there were precautions against such things, but after such a long time had passed they could of all become duds. Still, whatever was hidden beyond the wall was important so Sasuke didn't want to take the risk. Since it seemed to be an Uchiha secret, he assumed it had to be opened in a way only an Uchiha Shinobi could, a powerful one at least. With a deep breath, Sasuke closed his eyes and calmed his mind. Then he activated his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan; by doing so, Sasuke noticed that he had activated a seal of some sort, and he could faintly see a small point in the middle of the slit glowing softly. Taking a step towards it, Sasuke reached out his arm and placed his palm on the glowing dot. Slowly, he began to push some chakra into the wall. Not even a minute later, the walls began to part revealing a deep dark staircase going down.

After deactivating the Sharingan, he began gathering a small amount of chakra in his hands, a small blue glow started to emit about his hand, just bright enough to light the area surrounding him. If he was able to, he'd thank Ino for that, it was a simple jutsu she had invented back in there genin days. Sasuke descended down the stairs and followed the directions that were written on the paper from before. After nearly an hour of walking, Sasuke came across a dead end wall with a large Uchiha symbol on it again. Sasuke didn't need to activate his Sharingan this time to know that it was opened just like the previous door. After about a minute of pushing chakra into the wall, it finally slid apart and natural light was let into the dark hallway.

Stepping out, Sasuke found himself in cave that seemed to have a large hole in the top. In the center was a single building, a small shrine. Walking towards it Sasuke noticed that sitting in the shrine seemed to be a small round red gem. Sasuke examined it for a minute, and then decided to fuse some chakra in it. The second his chakra touched the gem, a blinding light burst from it forcing Sasuke to take a step back and drop the gem, but instead of falling to the ground the gem floated in the air and continued to glow.

After the light dimmed, Sasuke turned back towards the now floating stone. The light it had emitted was now shining in a circle. Looking closely, Sasuke noticed that something seemed to be standing in the middle of the light. As the image became clearer Sasuke had to suppress a gasp. It was himself, and it was the exact image of what he was doing just that moment. If that wasn't strange enough for Sasuke, the other Sasuke started moving, but it wasn't forwards, he started walking backwards, back through the door, down the hall, around all the corners and turns. The other Sasuke continued to walk backwards, retracing every step the real time Sasuke had taken, but every second that passed Sasuke noticed that the speed of reflection Sasuke was going at was slowly increasing.

After a minute of watching himself walk backwards through life, Sasuke realized what was in front of him. It was a portal and not just any portal, a portal to the past. He still wasn't completely sure of it; the aspect of time travel was something that just seemed impossible. It could have been a hoax, but then again, it was hidden pretty well in the compound and in his father's bedroom, it couldn't have been hoax. Then a thought hit him, this portal to the past was to be used if the Coup failed- a last resort.

The images in the portal were now flashing by at a rather fast pace, even activating his Sharingan didn't help him view the images very well. Though, from what he could tell, it seemed to be at the time when the explosion of Orochimaru's lair happened and he has seen Sakura and Naruto for the first time about nearly three years.

Suddenly, Sasuke's mind began rushing through thoughts. If this really was a portal to the past then he could go back a change things in his life. And if he timed it just right, he could prevent the massacre from happening, or at least try to find a better way to solve the problem between the clan and the village rather than death. Though, there were always the consequences of it, like people could not believe him, time travel was always something of a joke of the mind and there was still the possibility of this being a hoax.

Then again, Sasuke had a lot of things that he always wanted. He had power, strength, the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, and the blood of the man who caused all the pain and suffering for his clan on his hands. Not only that, but Sasuke had a powerful team- though he was missing one currently- Team Taka was strong. They worked well together, even though Sasuke was never one for teamwork and preferred to work alone. He couldn't shake the strong bonds he had formed with the other members of team Taka.

Thinking back on teams, Sasuke remembered the first team he was ever put in: Team Seven. He remembered Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi. He remembered the rest of the Konoha genin, Team Gai, and even the Sand Siblings. He once had bonds with them too, but he severed them in favor of his quest for power and strength and will to kill Itachi. Sasuke swallowed a lump in his throat at the thought of his brother.

Was Sasuke really willing to risk everything he had just to have a slim chance at changing the past? The chances of him actually landing in the correct time period was slim. He could either jump too early and miss his chance completely or land himself too far back and risk forgetting everything from landing in an infant brain.

Sasuke could always try to save and befriend- become allies with- the three members of Team Taka before Orochimaru damaged them all too much, but that would add even more stress to the Uchiha and he was running out of time. If he let too much time pass he really would end up back as an infant.

With a determined look on his face, Sasuke stared right into the portal, trying to catch at what point the portal was showing. The images were moving at such a fast speed that there was no way for him to exactly pin point what time in his life was flashing in front of him. A split second hesitation and then Sasuke found himself jumping into the portal. He was engulfed by another bright light and he felt as if his entire body was being sucked by a giant vacuum. Then, everything went black.

Seconds after Sasuke jumped into the portal, the gem flashed a bright light before dimming. It hovered in the air for a little bit before falling to the ground.

**Ah, finally, finished this chapter. I started it three days ago, but an important school project got in the way and I couldn't finish it all in one day, but today I had no real homework so I had time to do this. I feel like the ending was kind of rushed, but other than that I'm generally happy with how this came out so far. I will try to get the next chapter out soon as I can, I'll probably start working on tomorrow or something like that. I tried to describe the Compound as close as I could to the anime and manga, but I couldn't get everything 100 percent perfect. Also, don't worry. Sasuke's back story as to why he's in Konoha and is a 'good guy' will be explained shortly. I also hope I described the whole time travel description well enough. It was surprisingly hard to write out in a way where it was easy to picture in your mind. So, can any of you guess as to whom the feet belong to? I won't say if you're right or wrong, but I'd like to keep a tally of what you all think. Thanks for reading!**

_**4/19/13: Edited, changed a few things around. A set time for when Sasuke jumps back is set to where the manga currently is at: Chapter 626**_


	2. Lost Skills

The first thing that came to Sasuke's mind when he regained his senses was _the sun is too bright_. Blinking several times, Sasuke looked around to comprehend where -or when- he was. What he saw nearly sent him into a mini panic attack. He wasn't in any training field as a child, or anywhere in his old house, he wasn't even in the Uchiha Compound. He was in his apartment, the same apartment he lived in _after_ the massacre.

Jumping up out of the bed, Sasuke ran to the adjoining bathroom to his one room apartment and looked in the mirror to come face with his twelve year old self's reflection. Sasuke spent a good five minutes poking and prodding at himself to make sure he was all there and it wasn't some sort of dream. Once Sasuke was done, he let out a defeated sigh and walked back to his room and sat on the bed. Taking a glance at his bedside table, Sasuke noticed there was a brand new hitai-ate there. He had graduated already. The time travel was a success, but the time period in which he was aiming for was a complete miss. He had completely passed the Uchiha Massacre and instead landed himself back to his genin days. At least he didn't have to go through any more classes. Looking at the calendar Sasuke also noticed that today he was supposed to go to the academy to get assigned to his team. That's when it hit him; he was going to see Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi again. It had been over a month since their disappearance, and now Sasuke was going to see them again. Their younger selves maybe, but it would still be them. Quickly, Sasuke slipped on this old ninja outfit and grabbed his hitai-ate as he walked out the door and towards the academy.

It took about ten minutes of walking from his apartment to get to the academy and as always he was early. Taking his typical seat on the side, Sasuke waited for the rest of the class to show up. While he waited he thought over what he could do to try to go back even further. The Uchiha Compound would still be deserted, so he could always sneak back there and see if he could activate the gem again. There were risks and a lot of holes in the plan, but he had to try; he couldn't give up just yet. When people started to file in Sasuke took a sparing glance at them. One by one the rest of his graduating class walked into the room, excitingly discussed about how they passed the genin exam. Sasuke noticed Hinata walk in and it seemed like Hinata noticed him looking at her and quickly flushed red and sat in the nearest seat possible.

Sasuke had forgotten how shy and reserved she used to be. In his timeline, Hinata had gotten over her stuttering and was a little more open; still timid and soft spoken, but more than when she was a genin. Hinata's behavior got Sasuke thinking, everyone was going to be like they were back in their genin days. That meant Naruto was going to be even more of a loudmouth idiot and Sakura was going to be a ditzy fan girl. Sasuke wanted to slam his head on the desk in front of him, but he was an Uchiha and Uchihas didn't do that. He did however let out a long groan and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Something wrong Uchiha?" An angered voice asked; a voice that Sasuke remembered distinctly.

Looking up, Sasuke came face to face with Naruto, his blue eyes piercing though Sasuke's entire being. Sasuke took this split second to notice that they were full of young innocence a sharp contrast to Sasuke's own timeline where they were hardened with power and the knowledge of seeing death first hand. Unfortunately for Sasuke, Naruto didn't take Sasuke's act of ignoring him as something positive and continued to glare at the raven haired teen. That was until someone accidently elbowed Naruto in the back and he came flying forwards and a lip lock was created between the two boys. Naruto pulled away with a scream and started coughing as if he was trying to cough out his lung. Sasuke pulled away and was furiously wiping his mouth. No matter how many times Naruto had gotten them in situations like this Sasuke still didn't enjoy it, especially when Naruto tasted of cheap instant ramen. After he was satisfied with the amount he wiped his mouth, Sasuke turned back to the rest of the class and noticed that Sakura was now happily sitting next to him, a beat up Naruto on her other side.

At that moment Iruka decided to come into the room and ordered for everyone to quiet down. The rest of the class went exactly as it had when Sasuke first went through it. The teams were the same, Naruto's complaints were the same, and Iruka's speech was the same too. Not one thing was out of place, it was like nothing had ever changed and things were going to go perfectly for them all. But Sasuke knew better, he knew that fate that was going to befall everyone. And it was all Madara's fault.

When the class was dismissed Sasuke walked towards the empty room that his team was assigned so they could wait for their sensei, but Sasuke knew that Kakashi was going to be late, he didn't remember by how much, so he didn't rush at all. Instead he decided to take a scenic route around the academy; it had been a long time since he'd seen it and it wasn't burned down to the ground. As he walked through the halls he saw even younger children in classrooms learning basic information used for both civilian and ninja life. Sasuke continued his walk around the building and grounds until he was left with no other choice but to head to the empty classroom; at least he managed to kill half an hour. Entering the classroom Sasuke was greeted with an eraser landing on his head, creating a chalk cloud around his head and making the Uchiha go into a small coughing fit as Naruto began laughing his head off.

"I was hoping to hit Sensei with that because he was late! But instead I got Sasuke! This is even better!" Naruto continued to laugh as he clutched at his sides; completely ignoring Sakura as she yelled at him until she hit him over the head. Sasuke outwardly sighed at his teammates' antics, but in his mind Sasuke smiled; he really missed them no matter how much he didn't show it.

"Now that all your fun and games are over, head up to the roof and we'll begin our introductions." Glancing behind himself, Sasuke saw the familiar bored face of his sensei, Kakashi. Sasuke didn't get that long of a look before the silver haired Jounin disappeared with a puff of smoke.

The three genin made their way up to the roof of the school building where Kakashi was leaning against the railing looking blankly at the three of them. Once the three of them were seated on the steps, Kakashi looked at the three of them with his one visible eye before talking. "Begin with introducing yourselves."

"What do you want to know?" Naruto questioned.

"How about your likes, dislikes, your dreams for the future, you know, things like that." He replied nonchalantly while waving his hands around in the air.

"Hey, you go first. You're the sensei." Naruto called back.

Nodding her head Sakura added, "Yeah, you kind of look weird for a ninja."

Scratching his chin, Kakashi looked up into the sky as if thinking about the meaning of life. "Hm, I suppose so. Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell any of you my likes or dislikes. I have no dreams for the future and I like lots of hobbies." Sasuke mentally groaned; he forgot how vague Kakashi was when they first met. Sakura and Naruto looked annoyed at only learning his name, but that was to be expected. "Okay, now it's your turn. Let's start with the obnoxiously colored one." Kakashi said pointing towards Naruto.

Ignoring his comment, Naruto carried on with his introduction. "Alright then, my name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen- especially when Iruka-sensei pays for me- and I dislike waiting three minutes for instant ramen to cook." _Ramen obsessed as always. _Sasuke thought to himself. Adjusting his hitai-ate to make it gleam in the sun, Naruto grinned widely. "And my dream is to surpass the Hokage and then have the people of this village acknowledge my existence!" Sasuke smirked to himself. If only this Naruto knew that his dream was not only accomplished, but far surpassed even his own imagination. "And my hobbies are pranking people! Like Sasuke!" And there went Sasuke's brief admiration of Naruto.

Kakashi seemed to be processing this information then did a slight nod of the head before turning towards Sakura. "Alright, you're up next Pinkie."

Sakura sent a glare at Kakashi from the corner of her eye, "First off my name is Haruno Sakura. I like…" she started blushing here and sending Sasuke a side glance. "My dreams are…" She continued to blush and squirm around. "Oh yeah, I dislike Naruto!" The defeated and shocked look on Naruto's face made Sasuke wish he had a camera. "And my hobbies are…" She sent one more glance at Sasuke before softly squealing into her hands. All Sasuke could do was try to ignore her as he groaned to himself. Since he was from a different timeline and not the one he was in now, he didn't have the constant thought of killing Itachi on his mind to distract him from listening to Sakura's squeals. He hoped he didn't have to stay in the timeline for long or he'd go crazy. Worse comes to worse, he could try to snap some sense into the female member of their team before she let her obsession with him get in the way of their missions.

Kakashi looked like he wanted to smack his hand against his forehead. With a defeated sigh, he turned towards Sasuke. "Alright depressed boy you're last."

Sasuke knew he couldn't act too out of place from what he originally said or he'd cause suspicion for making a sudden 180 degree turn over night. He also didn't want to lie to himself; he made a promise to the rest of Team 7 that lies between teammates and oneself was not a good thing. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like tomatoes and training. I don't like a lot of things, like snakes." He suppressed the face of his former Master and his long strange looking tongue. "I don't have much of a dream except to rebuild my clan to its former glory. I also want revenge. I want revenge on the one who cause my clan's destruction." The atmosphere in the room suddenly got all tense and quite. No one said a thing or moved a muscle.

After a minute passed Kakashi let out a large sigh that caught the attention of his three students. "Alright then, from what I can gather from all of your rather strange introductions I have concluded," He paused for dramatic effect, "That I don't like you at all." All three genin just glared at their new sensei. Ignoring the death stares of his team, Kakashi continued on. "Before any of you even think that you are Shinobi now, you need to pass a test."

"A test," Sakura asked, "didn't we have enough of those in the academy? Why do we need to take another one?"

"Those were your academy tests to see if you had the basics down. This test is of my own and it's perfectly in the rights for me to make you take this." Kakashi's eye swept over all three of them, "And send you back to the academy should you fail." Sakura and Naruto looked aghast and started to yell protests at the Jounin. Sasuke just continued to sit there quietly. He knew that was going to come around, and he knew what the test was and that they were to pass. Kakashi continued to explain the rules and instructions to the survival test, being as vague as ever, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sasuke decided that this was time as ever to see if he could sneak into the Uchiha Compound. As he walked off to leave the academy roof top he felt a tug at the back of his shit. Turning, Sasuke came face to face with a now timid Sakura.

"Um, how about we get some lunch now?" She asked hesitantly, "Since you and I are on the same team now I thought it might be good for some team bonding, right Sasuke-kun?"

As much as eating a meal sounded good at the moment, Sasuke had to decline. He had a mission on hand. "No thanks. Take Naruto, instead. I have something I need to do." He hesitated for a moment, before adding on, "If I finish early I'll see if I can find you two." With that Sasuke walked off not sparing a glance back.

Briskly, Sasuke walked into the Compound, past the buildings and shops and through the housing apartments until he finally reached his own house and immediately walked into the parents' room and stood in front of the wall. With a deep breath, Sasuke activated his Mangekyou Sharingan only to be hit with a massive wave of nausea. Falling to his knees, Sasuke clutched at his head as sharp pains started shooting though his brain. In the corner of his eye Sasuke saw his mother's old mirror on the ground. Sasuke forced himself to move towards it. Grasping the handle of the small mirror, Sasuke held it up to his face to see a strange sight. This Sharingan was activated, but the three tomoes were fading in and out of focus. With determination, Sasuke tried again to force his Mangekyou to activate only for another wave of nausea to hit him. Before Sasuke dropped the mirror to the floor he saw the tomoes try to force themselves in to his Mangekyou but then fade away completely.

With great difficulty, Sasuke forced himself to stand up and walk out of his house. He needed to get somewhere else anywhere else. The room was spinning and he felt like his head was going to split in half. Sasuke stumbled out of his house and down the streets of the Compound all the way his head feeling heavier and heavier. It took twice as long for Sasuke to maneuver out of the Compound, and once he was out he collapsed next to an old stream next to the Compound in the forest where he proceeded to empty out his stomach of its contents. After he was done Sasuke rinsed his mouth in the stream and leaned against a tree, breathing heavily.

What was wrong with his Sharingan? It worked perfectly before. It hurt Sasuke's head to even think about it. What had gone wrong? Did something get messed up when he traveled back in time? Multiple different scenarios ran through his head. If he couldn't activate his Mangekyou Sharingan then he couldn't get to the gem and no gem lead to zero access to time travel. This meant he was stuck in the time line he was currently in. Sasuke gripped at the grass under his hands in anger. This wasn't the plan. He was supposed to travel back to before the massacre and try to stop his brother then or convince the Elders not to kill off his entire clan. But he had messed up, he was nowhere near that time period and without his Sharingan, there was no way for him to even try again. He wanted to scream out in anger, but instead he settled for biting his lip till it bled.

After his head wasn't feeling as dizzy, Sasuke stood up when a thought hit him. Quickly he formed the hand seals- ox, rabbit, and monkey –and watched in defeat and slight horror as the usual flow of chakra to his hand and familiar blue lighting sparks of the Chidori did not appear. With a small amount of panicking Sasuke quickly focused chakra to his feet and tried to walk up the tree he was just leaning against. He made it about half way up before the chakra gave way and he fell to the ground with a thump. Rolling over onto his back, Sasuke started up at the tree branches above his head gasping for breath; he was exhausted already. It seemed like it wasn't just his Sharingan that was affected, but his entire chakra system. Even his reserves and control seemed to completely disappear. It must have been the body he was in. His mind, knowledge, and personality may have been the same as the future, but his body was that of a typical genin restricted by its physical capabilities. He'd have to retrain his body in order to use any of the jutsu or skills his mind already knew. It was going to be really troublesome, but he had no other choice. He had to retrain himself to learn the Mangekyou Sharingan so he could go back even further in time and hopefully, not mess up again.

* * *

**Finally finished! I would have had this up sooner, but I got a bit sidetracked. Also took a bit of time for both my (awesome and amazing) betas/best friends to both go through this chapter. We had to debate over some grammar and Japanese to English spelling. (Mainly they did, I just sat in the corner.)**

**Sorry to those of you who thought that Sasuke was actually going to change the massacre, but I honestly didn't know what I could possible do with that. This was also my original idea and I would like to stick with it. And yup, you guys won't know just yet who the mystery person is, but y'all are still free to guess. I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner, but no promises. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Bell Test

Sasuke walked down the streets of Konoha feeling utterly defeated. He had failed his own personal mission and had ended up in the wrong time period. Now he was to spend an unknown amount of time reliving his genin days until he could activate his Mangekyou Sharingan again. That is, if he could activate it at all. The Mangekyou required traumatic emotions to happen in reaction the death of the person closest to the Sharingan user, and Sasuke had already gone through enough traumatic experiences that he doubted anything could retrigger the Mangekyou and killing Naruto or Sakura was absolutely out of the question.

Sasuke was pulled from his own thoughts when the sounds and smells of a familiar food stand tickled his senses. Looking up, Sasuke saw that his feet had walked him all the way to Ichiraku Ramen and Sasuke could hear the voices of not only Teuchi and Ayame, but the voices of Naruto and Sakura too. Sasuke smiled to himself. So Sakura did end up going to lunch with Naruto. Walking into the ramen stand, Sasuke was instantly greeted by Teuchi and Ayame, which of course got the attention of Naruto and Sakura.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura yelled out in surprise, "you actually came!"

"I said I would find you guys if I finished my business early. I did, so here I am." Sasuke replied smoothly, not letting his own emotions show.

"Hmm, what business did you have to do Sasuke?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Nothing you need to know about since it doesn't involve the likes of you, Idiot." Sasuke replied, easily slipping back into his old way of talking to Naruto. Naruto just glared at the Uchiha before turning back to his bowl of ramen. Sasuke took the seat next to Sakura, easily seeing her flushed face, and ordered two beef ramen bowls.

"I didn't think you liked ramen that much Sasuke-kun." Sakura stated, surprised at his order.

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. "It's okay, but they're not both for me. One's for you. You only have a small low sodium ramen in front of you. As a kunoichi you need to eat right and you need the carbs. Being on a diet isn't good for a shinobi." Sakura turned red in embarrassment due to her diet being found out. "Anyway, if you train enough the extra carbs and fats will mean nothing. You'll just burn them all and then some." The two bowls of ramen were then brought out to the front and set in front of Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke started eating it right away, trying not to let his hunger show. It had been technically over two days since he himself had last eaten; solider pills only went so far. Sasuke watched as Sakura seemed to stare at her ramen while having an inner conflict with herself. Then finally- to his relief- she began to eat and, from the looks of it, it seemed like she was enjoying it.

Team 7 stayed at Ichiraku's for another half an hour and talked, well it was mainly Naruto who talked, Sakura trying to talk to Sasuke, and Sasuke just sitting there feeling indifferent towards the meaningless conversations. After they were done and they all paid for their meals, the three teammates went their separate ways.

Back at his apartment, Sasuke was thinking about how long it could possible take for him to retrain himself to use the Mangekyou and- at the very least- how long it would take to retrain his body to work like it used to. With the evidence of how long he lasted when he did the tree climbing only about an hour before, Sasuke concluded that he did have some aspects of his old skills since he made it half way. Sasuke assumed that since he had already learned everything once already the time to relearn the techniques would take at least half as long. The only thing that would take the most time was the actual training of his body to endure his old techniques. Standing in front of the wall, Sasuke began to focus chakra into his feet in preparation to climb it. He needed to start somewhere.

The raven haired boy spent a good portion of two hours working on trying to build up his chakra reserves and maintain his control. Even though it was going a lot quicker than his first time around, it was still way too slow in Sasuke's opinion. Patience was never one of his strong points. After a few more tries, he was able to successfully keep chakra flowing to his feet for fifteen minutes before he started slipping. Deciding to stop for the day, Sasuke cancelled the chakra and landed on his feet. Looking around his room he fully realized how immensely dull he was as a child. The room was painted plain white, a single bed with white sheets, one window with white drapes, a bookshelf, and his dresser, a small built in kitchen, a kotatsu, and his bath room. On the walls there was a basic clock, a calendar, and a wall scroll of the Uchiha Clan symbol. Sasuke wasn't a flashy person in any aspect except his jutsu, but he did admit he was rather boring person.

Glancing at his bookshelf, an idea suddenly came to him. Walking over, Sasuke grabbed an empty notebook and pulled out a pen. If he was going to be stuck in this time period for an unknown amount of time- possibly permanently- he might as well make note of everything that happened in his life up until he found the gem so he wouldn't forget. Sasuke spent the next hour writing down every event he could remember from their first D-ranked mission to the attack on Konoha and so on.

After Sasuke decided that he was satisfied with the amount that he had written down, along with a few side notes on things he could manipulate if he was around to see them, he hid the book under his bed. The clock on the wall depicted that it was only half past four in the afternoon, still fairly early for dinner. So Sasuke decided to kill time by heading to the shops. He really wanted some tomatoes. Grabbing some ryō- he noticed he was running low and his next allowance (given to him by the Hokage since he was an orphan) wasn't for another week- Sasuke headed out the door and into the busy streets of Konoha.

Kakashi had told Team 7 to meet at the bridge to the training grounds at six in the morning and to not eat breakfast, but Sasuke knew better than that. Kakashi was always late and either way Sasuke already knew what the test was about. Even so, couldn't just arrive three hours late after eating a full breakfast. No, instead he arrived an hour late and only had one tomato before he left. That was good enough for him. When he arrived at the bridge, he was instantly yelled at by a rather pissed off Naruto.

"Sasuke, where the hell have you been?" Naruto yelled in Sasuke's face, "You're an hour late! You're lucky Kakashi-sensei isn't here yet!"

Even though he and Naruto had forgiven each other and Sasuke had admitted Naruto was his best friend, it didn't exactly mean Sasuke and Naruto were overly friendly with each other. So Sasuke felt little regret as he smoothly insulted Naruto and dodged his questions. "Because unlike you, I'm not an idiot and I actually did a little research on our Sensei. Apparently he is extremely late to everything. Taking that into account, I decided to sleep in just a bit more."

Naruto was fuming at Sasuke. "And you couldn't tell Sakura-chan or myself this before, why?!"

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders, "Didn't come to mind." Before Naruto could lunge at Sasuke, Sakura had grabbed him around the neck and started digging her knuckles into his scalp.

"Naruto you idiot, stop bugging Sasuke-kun about it! If he forgot, he forgot!" Sakura shouted at the blonde who was desperately trying to get out of Sakura's deadly grasp. Sasuke sighed, this is how he remembered his genin days and though he wouldn't admit it to himself, he missed these moments. The three genin waited two more hours before their sensei finally showed up with a smile in his eyes.

"You're late Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto and Sakura yelled immediately while pointing their fingers at the tardy shinobi.

"Ah, sorry, sorry," Kakashi replied sheepishly scratching the back of his head, "You see, I ran into a talking rock on the way here and–" Kakashi didn't get to continue before Naruto and Sakura cut him off yelling at him that he was lying. Giving up trying to make an excuse for being late, Kakashi just cleared his throat and told the three of them to follow him to Training Area Three.

When they got there Kakashi stood in front of them and pulled out two bells. "This is your test. You need to get a hold of one of these bells before that clock goes off at noon." There was an alarm clock sitting on a tree stump nearby. "Those who fail this test are going to be tied to a tree stump, receive no lunch, and will be forced to watch the rest of us eat."

Sasuke didn't need to be a mind reader to know that Naruto and Sakura were pissed at the realization as to why they were told not to eat breakfast.

"There are two bells here, so one of you is destined to fail and be sent back to the academy. Also, use any jutsu or weapon against me, if you don't come at me with the intent to kill then none of you will succeed."

"But then you'll get hurt sensei!" Sakura exclaimed worried for their sensei's well-being.

Kakashi just gave all three of the ninja a bored look, "I highly doubt a pink haired girl, mister anti-social boy, and the dead last can do any damage to me at all."

At the mention of being dead last, Naruto's reaction was immediate and negative. With all the speed and grace of a newly graduated academy student, Naruto pulled a kunai from his holster and attempted to chuck it at Kakashi. And, just as he did in Sasuke's time line, Kakashi seemed to appear behind Naruto, holding his head still and redirected Naruto's arm behind his head so the kunai was pointing at his own neck.

"Calm down, I haven't even said to start yet." Looking at the three- two –shocked genin, Kakashi smiled, "At least you are all ready to come at me with the intent to kill. Well then, let's begin." With that Kakashi disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

As Sakura and Naruto briefly took in shock at their sensei's speed and how he had disappeared, Sasuke took this moment to think about how he should go about this test. Should he let them all do what they wanted and let Naruto be tied to the post again, or should he try to get them to work together before that happened? If he was going to be stuck here, he might as well try to build the team's dynamics without the need of a near death experience in the Land of Waves. So Sasuke concluded that he would change the course of the bell test.

_What an idiot. _Sasuke thought as he watched Naruto once again get the Thousand Years of Pain technique used on him. _At least he learns to wise up a bit in the future. _Sasuke continued to watch Naruto go against Kakashi with his Shadow Clone Jutsu, still impressed that the once dead last could think of a plan like that at the last second; even though it did a flip around and went against him.

After Naruto had fallen into Kakashi's obvious rope trap, Sasuke decided he'd seen enough and jumped away from the scene. He wasn't stupid enough to make the same mistake twice and give away his location to Kakashi. Instead he decided to find Sakura since Kakashi was going to trap her in a genjutsu soon.

Before Sasuke could move too far, an ear splitting screech echoed throughout the training field's forest and Sasuke immediately knew where Sakura was. He had forgotten just how loud she was as a genin. Rushing towards the sound, Sasuke found Sakura passed out on the ground. _Damn it Kakashi that seriously was too much. Even for you._ Sasuke focused some chakra into his fingers before tapping them lightly on Sakura's forehead. With a sleepy look, Sakura woke up and saw Sasuke. In a flash, Sakura flung herself at him in a bone crushing hug yelling something along the line of being glad he was alive.

"Sakura, you need to focus!" Sasuke snapped at the pink haired girl. Sasuke would be lying if he said he didn't miss Sakura's hugs, but this wasn't so much of a hug as it was a suffocating squeeze of death. "We only have a little more than an hour left to get the bells from Kakashi."

Sakura let go of Sasuke with a blush and nodded. "But Sasuke-kun, there are only two bells and three of us. One of us is bound to fail." She snapped her fingers, "I know! How about you and I get the bells, that way Naruto fails and we won't have him on our team anymore!"

"Are you stupid?" Sasuke snapped at her with a glare. The stupid childhood grudges and fights he could really live without. "We need Naruto on our team, we were all assigned together for a reason- and it wasn't just to balance out test scores. To pass the test Kakashi said we just needed to get a bell. He never said we all had to get separate bells." Sakura stayed quite, possibly still shocked at Sasuke outburst at her, so Sasuke continued on talking. "He's a jounin and we just became genin, there is no way we're ever going to overpower him- especially separately. Do you get t now? We need to work together, as in teamwork. That's why we're put in teams. If we work together to get at least one bell and then pass it around the three of us, we're still technically all getting a bell. It's just the same one. Understand?" Sakura nodded. "Good, now come on. We need to find the goofball before he does something stupid." With that, the two genin jumped into the tress in search of their orange clad teammate.

When the two finally found Naruto he was in the mists of trying to sneak over towards the unguarded bento boxes. Swiftly, Sasuke pulled a kunai from his weapon pouch and hurled it at Naruto's feet- missing obviously, he just needed to spook Naruto. Said boy jumped back in shock and then glared at Sasuke.

"What the hell was that for, Sasuke? You could have taken my foot off!"

"But I didn't, therefore shut up." Sasuke said smugly "You were going to try to eat before noon. You could put us all in jeopardy if you do that. Now listen here." Sasuke explained what he told Sakura to Naruto, who eventually agreed. It made sense after all- plus they were all hungry.

"So, mister I-know-all-the-answers, what do you suggest we do?" Naruto asked in a sarcastic tone. Sasuke just smirked in return.

Hidden in the bushes, Sasuke watched his sensei stand in the middle of a clearing. Since his senses were not trained yet, he was unable to tell if it was the real Kakashi or a clone. Either way, it was worth a shot. He took his heel and tapped it three times on the branch below him. In return Sasuke heard a returned double tap. Moments later, Naruto burst out form the bushes under the tree Sasuke was in, and ran towards Kakashi.

Naruto threw several shuriken at the jounin, who dodged easily, but what the silver haired man wasn't prepared for was another Naruto coming from his other side. Kakashi pushed off from the ground and kicked the two Narutos who both disappeared in a puff of smoke. Kakashi's eye widened, as another Naruto from the smoke emerged and lunged at him with a kunai in hand.

Kakashi easily knocked it out of his hand and pined Naruto to the ground since it was the real one. Before Kakashi could comment on Naruto's sudden change in battle tactics, a poof was heard behind him. The kunai Naruto had before changed into Sakura who was attempting to round house kick him in the head. Of course, she missed, but it had forced Kakashi to release Naruto and flipped to the side in order dodge, only to be faced with a large fireball coming right at him.

Kakashi easily jumped out of the way, only to be caught from behind by several Narutos- Kakashi noticed that the shuriken from before were missing now. With a few quick movements Kakashi knocked the Narutos off him and sent a kick to the stomach to the real one as well.

Sasuke and Sakura quickly rushed to Naruto's side and helped him up. Kakashi noticed that Naruto passed something to Sakura, who in return to passed it to Sasuke. Kakashi prepared for another attack, but was surprised to see Sasuke smirk instead and then dangle a bell in the air. Wide eyed, Kakashi checked his hip to see one of the two bells was missing. Then, the clock rang out, signaling that noon had come.

"We win, Kakashi." Sasuke said smugly, "We each got ahold of one of the bells before noon. Therefore we all pass."

Kakashi just looked dumbfounded at the three smiling genin, no one had ever figured out the bell test before. Kakashi was sure that the ragtag kids in front of him were to fail as well, but it looked like he had been deceived. Kakashi just smirked to himself; he guessed that they weren't as weak as he thought.

"Alright, you all pass. Congratulations, you are now all my students. I'll see you all here tomorrow morning at nine." And then he disappeared with the body flicker jutsu.

Sakura and Naruto cheered and Sasuke simply smirked. He knew that they would pass, it was differently than before, but now this time around they did it with actual teamwork. That, and Sasuke didn't have to kill his pride by offering Naruto his food.

Sakura jogged over to the bento boxes and brought them over the two boys and handed one to each of them, "Come one guys! Let's eat, we deserve it!"

As they sat to eat their food, Naruto gave Sasuke a critical eye, "Hey, Sasuke." Said boy just hummed in response, "What's with the sudden change in personality? Back in the academy you didn't give a damn for others, or teamwork, or anything that you thought was pointless, but now" Naruto paused, "you're suddenly trying to get everyone to work together. What happened?"

Sasuke paused in his eating and stared at his half eaten bento, Naruto was staring at him and Sakura was watching him form the corner of her eyes. "Nothing really happened, except… I guess you can say I had a dream last night. Well, it was more like a memory of when I was younger and Itachi was first assigned a team. Itachi had said that even though personal strength and power was important, teamwork was just as important- if not more. When I noticed that we were going to get nowhere fast working separately to get the bells, I decided that maybe working together would help." It wasn't a complete lie, Itachi had said that before and they were not going to get anywhere working alone. Naruto and Sakura seemed satisfied with the answer and the three of them continued on eating their lunches in peace.

Once they were done and all cleaned up, Team 7 decided to go for a walk around the village to rest their stomachs before doing some sparring and training. As they walked along the village streets, Sakura made idle conversation about small things such as what their first mission could be. Naruto hung on to every word she said and loudly added his own comments and thoughts as well. As the two talked, Sasuke took notice of what was going on around them, more importantly what was being said around them. Whispering, the people were whispering and not just about the latest gossip. No, they were whispering about Naruto. Sasuke distinctly heard the words demon, fox, evil, unsafe, and monster.

Sasuke knew that Naruto's childhood had been rough because of the problems that the Kyuubi caused, but he never thought it was to this degree. Glancing at Naruto, Sasuke noticed that Naruto seemed to be either ignoring the whispers around him or was just not paying attention to them at all whilst Sakura was blissfully unaware of the whispering. How Naruto was able to stay so happy and cheerful all the time with the pure hated and malice towards him that was everywhere, Sasuke didn't know. He had to praise Naruto for his pure hearted nature and how he had not let all the hate towards him lead him down a path of negativity.

After half an hour passed by, the three genin returned to the training grounds and Sasuke turned towards Naruto, "Let's do a taijutsu spar- shuriken and kunai are allowed though."

"Alright, I'm going to kick your ass, Sasuke! Better prepare yourself!" Naruto yelled confidently with a smug grin on his face. Sasuke just rolled his eyes and turned towards Sakura, "How about you work on your chakra control even more since you already have a natural talent for it."

"How do you suppose that, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, "We've only been in one fight together as a team."

Sasuke shrugged, "I can just tell, plus I remember Iruka saying you were the best at chakra control before. Now you should just make yourself even better." Sasuke pointed to a tree off to the side, "Focus chakra into your feet and walk up that tree. Too much chakra and you'll break it, too little and you'll fall." Nodding, Sakura walked off to the side of the training field and out of the way of Sasuke and Naruto's way.

"Heh, ready Sasuke? I'm not going to go easy on you." Naruto smirked.

"I wouldn't want you too." Sasuke replied, and then the two of them leaped forwards towards each other and both threw several shuriken- they both dodged them easily.

Naruto then aimed a well powered punch towards Sasuke's face, but Sasuke- being from the future as he was- was well knowledgeable in Naruto's fighting style- especially that of his younger days. He swiftly ducked down and swung his leg underneath Naruto and caused the blonde to fall onto his back. Using his arms as support, Sasuke flipped himself over and brought his foot down against Naruto's stomach only to have him disappear in a puff of smoke. _When did he create a Shadow Clone? I didn't even see him-_Sasuke's thoughts were cut off when he heard the sound of a kunai flying towards him. Rolling across the ground, Sasuke successfully dodged the kunai Naruto had thrown. It wasn't aimed in a way that was meant to kill, but either way it was aimed to harm. Sasuke glared at the smirking blonde in front of him and noticed that one of the shuriken that Naruto threw before was missing. _I see, using that tactic. Naruto was always an on-you-feet kind of learner. _"Not bad Naruto, but you'll have to work harder than that to beat me."

"I haven't even started, Sasuke." The spar continued on for the next ten minutes with Sasuke as the winner after pinning Naruto to the ground. "Damn it!" Naruto cursed and Sasuke just smirked. It was no secret who would come out on top. Even without the future knowledge, Sasuke was still- at this point in time- stronger than Naruto. The fact that he was from the future just added on to his strength, but Sasuke still noticed that Naruto's determination was slightly different than before. It must have been from working together during the bell test rather than working separately. The fact that the team had already spent some time together and built on team bonding so early on probably added to it too.

Holding out a hand Sasuke helped Naruto up. "Come one, I know you don't give up so easily. You're too hard headed for that." Naruto glared at Sasuke, "Now, stop being a wimp. You have a long ways to go if you ever want to beat me, let alone become Hokage."

With a determined smile, Naruto accepted Sasuke's hand and the two began sparring again- unaware that Sakura had watched them from the tree. She had reached the top rather easily and quickly and decided to watch her male teammates for a bit. The way they seemed to suddenly push aside all their differences and work together was amazing. Naruto's drive to surpass Sasuke and Sasuke's own raw skill was inspiring to the pink haired girl. Determined not to fall behind and allow her own skill levels become a burden to them, Sakura jumped down from the tree and continued to practice her chakra control.

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**Ah, so sorry this took longer than expected! I kind of ran into some personal complications and I also- admittedly- got lazy and left this story untouched for a few days, but this chapter is longer than the other two by about 1,200 words! That's good right? Anyway, thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews. They warmed my heart. Sorry if the 'fight' scene wasn't that good, action like that isn't really my forte, but I'm working on it. This chapter was only beta'ed by Raven since Elvy is in Germany right now for Spring Break.**

**I know Sasuke hasn't done much changing around, but he didn't plan on staying in this time line for long, but since he realizes he probably will be stuck for a while- or maybe forever- he will make some changes now. Also, I don't want to spend too much time on the Land of Waves arc because I want to get to the chunin exams and I'm planning on spending a good amount of chapters on that arc. Though, that doesn't mean I'm going to rush the Land of Waves arc. I'll probably just make it maybe 2-3 chapters- possible 4, but no more than that.**

**Also, sorry I don't really reply to reviews, I never considered that since I don't really feel like I can really answer them without spoiling something. Though, if a question is repeatedly asked I'll respond to in here in the Author's Note.**

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you for reading.**


	4. Really Rolling Now

**IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ALL PREVIOUS READERS AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER! PLEASE READ! There are also some responses to questions/concerns- one being about the pairings for this story.**

* * *

As much as Sasuke was glad that Team Seven was working together faster than they did in the original timeline, Sasuke was still annoyed at the D-ranked missions they had to do. Sasuke was also painfully reminded of how sharp the claws of a cat were. Team Seven had been doing D-ranked mission after D-ranked mission for about a month now, and the frustration of it all was finally taking its toll on the team- especially Naruto.

Teams Seven had just completed a mission of walking a large group of dogs and were currently sitting at the local BBQ house for dinner- Kakashi being forced to pay. Naruto was stuffing his face while Sakura was casually eating. Kakashi wasn't eating- he said he was going to eat later. Naruto and Sakura looked a bit put off at this. Sasuke assumed that they wanted to know what was under Kakashi's mask. The raven-haired time traveler gave a chuckle to himself. He remembered the self-assigned mission that the three genin went on to discover the secret of the mask- only to find out there was another mask underneath.

After dinner was over, Kakashi paid and disappeared with the Body Flicker jutsu, and Naruto ran off yelling something about needing to talk to Iruka. Sasuke was going to head home too, but Sakura stopped him.

"So, Sasuke-kun," Sasuke looked up at the call of his name. "I was wondering if you wanted to spar with me tomorrow since we don't have to meet up with Kakashi-sensei until noon." Sakura nudged the ground with her foot nervously.

With a shrug of his shoulders Sasuke nodded his head. "I won't go easy on you just because you're my teammate. Get there at the usual meeting time though." He said before walking off. Behind him, Sasuke could hear Sakura jumping up and down while holding back cheers.

As soon as Sasuke got back to his flat, he kicked off his shoes and stretched out on his bed and reflected on the past few weeks.

The team's dynamics with each other were much better than when the three first were out together in the original timeline- though they still weren't the best. Sasuke and Naruto still fought on multiple occasions, and Sakura still didn't have much confidence in Naruto's skill and was still putting Sasuke and her appearance first. At least she was eating properly now.

Rolling over, Sasuke pulled the notebook he wrote in before out from under his bed. Flipping through the pages, Sasuke found the entry about the fight with Zabuza and Haku in the land of Waves- it was soon. He couldn't remember exactly when the mission was assigned to them. It could be in the next week, or the next day. They would only get the mission if they could get Kakashi to agree to ask for a harder mission.

Sighing Sasuke tossed the book to the floor. He wasn't that worried about the book being found because it was written in a code that Sasuke and Itachi had created when they were kids. No one knew how to decipher it except for them. Still, Sasuke was going to make sure to burn the book as soon as he could use his Sharingan to memorize everything since he didn't want to risk forgetting something important.

Besides the dynamics of the team being improved, Sasuke was also working hard to get his body to function in the way he was used to. His chakra reserves were much larger now, and Sasuke was also proud to say that he had gained complete control over his chakra now. Well, it wasn't the same as at the control he had over it when he would use his Chidori Stream or Kirin, but it was strong and Sasuke could control his jutsu properly. Sasuke had also spent some time practicing the basics of his clan's signature jutsus again as well as a few other simple fire jutsus he created. He didn't want to try to force his body to do a high level jutsu in case it backlashed at him.

Sasuke found taijutsu to be the most frustrating He was used to being able to move at speeds that rivaled Lee and Gai, but now he was slow. Slower than he was when he first entered the chunin exams, and definitely slower than when he was sixteen.

With a sigh, Sasuke pulled the covers over his head and fell asleep.

**OOO**

The next morning Sasuke arrived at the bridge at eight o'clock to see Sakura already there. She was sitting on the bridge's railing and was dangling her feet above the water. Sasuke noticed that she seemed to have taken extra care of her hair that morning and let out a sigh.

"Why do you put so much effort into your looks? You're a shinobi; your priorities should be on training and getting stronger. The enemy isn't going to care what you look like."

"Sasuke-kun, I… well…" Sakura trailed off clearly embarrassed. Sasuke didn't need to be a genius like Shikamaru to know why.

"Come on, let's spar already. You ate right?" Sakura nodded. "Good, let's go."

Moments later Sasuke and Sakura were in the clearing next to the bridge. Only giving Sakura a split second of warning, Sasuke lunged at the girl and swung his arm back to punch her. Sakura closed her eyes and brought her arms up to shield her face.

_Mistake one. _

Sasuke changed the nature of his attack, and swung his feet across the ground and sent Sakura onto her back. She gasped out in pain and surprise, but showed no quick reflexes to get up.

_Mistake two._

Sasuke grabbed Sakura by the arm and flipped her onto her back, effectively pinning one arm behind her back and the other under her own weight. Sasuke took his knees and placed them at her sides to prevent her from rolling around, and hooked his lower legs over hers to prevent her from kicking. Sakura let out a bit of a scream and the sudden force and weight on her back. She remained still- Sasuke could feel her arm trembling under his hand.

"Mistake three. You're out." Sasuke said in a low tone.

"W-what are you talking about, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked hesitantly, turning her head around to try to get a better look at Sasuke, only to wince in pain. "C-could you get off me, please? It's starting to hurt."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and got off of Sakura and sat on the grass and stared at her as she sat herself back up. Sakura was rubbing her shoulder with a face that showed her pain clearly.

"You made three mistakes. First, you took your eyes off of me and covered your face when I attacked you. By doing so you cut off all sight you had thus making you extremely vulnerable. Second, you didn't seem to make a move when you fell to the ground. If you were thinking of moving it had to be done quicker. Every second counts in a battle. Though, you could have avoided landing on your back if you had your eyes on me. I was going slowly; you would have seen the change in my attack. Third, you let yourself be caught. If I was an enemy ninja I could have easily killed you."

Sakura was silent while Sasuke was speaking, and now that he was done she was still silent and twisting the hem of her dress. Sasuke decided that he might as well continue on talking.

"As a shinobi you need to make sure you're ready for everything. This life is dangerous and deadly; full of death, blood, and tears. Every second counts because a single split second can be the difference between life and death, and not just of you, but the life of your teammates. A lot of the missions you will be put on will be three or four person teams. If you don't even have the ability to protect yourself, how do you ever expect to protect your teammates?"

Sakura continued to stay silent and Sasuke could see tears forming in her eyes. Maybe he'd gone a little too hard with his lecture. The Sakura he remembered from their brief encounters and from word of ear around taverns was strong willed, powerful, and always ready to protect the ones close to her. Not only that, but was a fierce opponent in battle. Sasuke had to remind himself that this Sakura- the one currently trying not to cry in front of him- was not the same one. This Sakura hadn't gone through any training with Tsunade, she hadn't faced fear or death head on yet, and she still didn't understand the true meaning of what it took to be a Konoha shinobi.

Sasuke sighed and pulled a cloth from his pocket. "Here, dry your eyes. Tears don't suit you. What would your enemy think if they saw you crying? It shows weakness, and while having weakness is good- it keeps your humanity- you can't let them show on the battlefield." Sakura took the cloth and dried her eyes, still looking down though.

"Sakura," Sasuke said, and once he had the pink-haired girl's attention he continued, "You have potential. You have the best chakra control out of our entire graduating class, but you let thoughts of me, your looks, and your fears prevent you from achieving your full potential. You need to focus more on training if you don't want to drag your teammates down. You need to understand this, or maybe the path of a shinobi isn't right for you." Sasuke knew that was a blunt lie, nothing was better suited for Sakura than the life of a shinobi, but at this current point in time Sakura didn't know that quite yet. She needed an extra push to get het going. An extra push that wasn't him leaving the village and nearly killing half their friends.

Sakura's reaction to the last statement was immediate. "No!" Sakura shrieked out in a panic. "I want to be a shinobi! I want to be able to fight, to be strong, to be brave, and skilled." She looked down at her hands, "To not be useless."

Sasuke smiled proudly; standing up, Sasuke held his hand out to Sakura. "Good, then let's get to work. You have a long ways to go if you want to reach your goals."

Sakura smiled up at Sasuke and nodded before taking his hand and letting him pull her to her feet. Immediately, they got into a fighting stance and their sparing session continued.

**OOO**

Sasuke finished sparring with Sakura around eleven. He told her to go home and clean up since she had taken quite a beating during their spar. Sasuke wasn't lying when he said he wasn't going to go easy on her. Once Sakura left, Sasuke sat himself down against a nearby tree and thought to himself.

Even in the short time spent sparing, Sakura was already showing her genius. She was learning fast, retaining all the corrections Sasuke told her, and wasn't giving up. She was definitely going to turn out like the strong kunoichi he knew.

From the spars he had with Naruto, Sasuke could easily tell that he was much more confident in his abilities since Sasuke wasn't 'showing off'- Naruto's words, not his. Sasuke could also tell that because the bond between then two of them was more of friendship rather than just teammates, Naruto was happier in general.

During their training sessions with Kakashi they were put through various chakra control exercises as well as stamina building exercises- which mainly meant they were told to run around the village as he read his book. Sasuke was also able to get Kakashi to teach them how to walk on water since they already were learning how to walk up flat surfaces- courtesy of Sasuke.

Things were going well so far.

After a few more minutes of resting, the time traveler felt his stomach growl in need of food. Standing up, Sasuke started walking towards the main part of the village and towards Ichiraku. When Sasuke arrived at the side restaurant he was not surprised to see Naruto there. However, Sasuke was surprised to see Naruto standing there in his boxers and waving his orange jumpsuit around the air.

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing?" Sasuke questioned as he walked under the drapes.

"Ack, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled out in surprise. He took his clothes and tried to hide his frog boxers from sight. "W-what are you doing here?"

"I was hungry. A better question would be: why are you here in your underwear?"

"Ah well, you see. I had a coupon for a free bowl of ramen, but I can't find it now. I don't have any money either so I can't pay for anything."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "What about the money we got for those missions we just did?"

Naruto's nervous smiled faltered a bit, but he picked it up quickly. It didn't go unseen by Sasuke. "Well, you see. I had used it to pay my apartment rent."

"What about the monthly allowance the Hokage gives you?"

"That went to my rent as well." Naruto replied. "My landlady said that things have been tough for her recently. I think she mentioned her husband needing surgery or something. So she raised my rent a bit. She said it wouldn't be for long, but that was a few months ago." Naruto smiled widely, "I just hope her husband gets well soon. It's not fun being sick."

_Naruto is the only one living in that apartment complex. And it's being paid for by the Hokage. There is no landlady. _Sasuke thought to himself. He had discovered this one day when he was searching around Naruto's apartment during one of their 'find the damn cat' missions. Sasuke didn't know that Naruto was paying rent, though. The Uchiha felt his blood boil. Naruto was being ripped off, and Sasuke had a pretty good idea as to why. Sasuke would have to mention this to the Hokage later- discreetly of course. Forcing his negative thoughts aside Sasuke let out a sigh.

"Put your clothes back on, idiot. I'll pay for you, but I'm only paying for one bowl. We don't need you passing out during the mission from over a stomachache because you overate."

"What? Ah, I mean… thank you Sasuke! I guess you aren't as much of a bastard as I thought."

Sasuke glared at the blonde who just smiled in return as he pulled his jumpsuit back on.

**OOO**

"Where the hell is Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto yelled out in frustration. The genin of Team Seven had been sitting outside the Hokage Tower for around an hour, with no sign of their silver-haired sensei anywhere. "This is so annoying! What's even worse is that we're probably going to be assigned some lame D-ranked mission again!"

"Those D-ranked missions are essential to keeping the village running smoothly!" Sakura retorted, clearly irritated- the aches all over her body from that morning's spar probably adding more fuel to her irritation.

"I know that," Naruto pouted as he crossed his arms. "I just think that we're plenty ready to take on a tougher mission!"

"Idiot, that's Kakashi's decision." Sasuke said, "Though, I have to agree that all these D-ranks are getting annoying."

"Well, I suppose you all have been displaying excellent teamwork and improvement." All three genin snapped their heads up to see Kakashi crouching vertically on the tower's wall. "Yo."

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura screamed while pointing at the offending man.

"Well you see, on my way here I ran into an old lady who-" Kakashi didn't get far in his excuse before Naruto hurled a rock at him- which Kakashi easily dodged. "Now, that wasn't very nice Naruto. You could have hurt me."

"Then stop spitting your lies! Let's go get our damn mission before all the good ones are taken! And you better ask for a higher level one!"

Kakashi sighed deeply. "I'll ask, but the final decision is up to the Hokage, not me. Let's go already. Iruka is most likely going to be mad that we're late."

True to Kakashi's word, Iruka was not happy to see the four shinobi walk into the mission briefing room.

"Where exactly have the four of you been?!" Iruka yelled, "You've kept us all waiting for over an hour!"

"Calm down Iruka-sensei. If anyone is to blame, it's Kakashi-sensei here. He didn't show up until a few minutes ago." Naruto said as he jerked a thumb towards Kakashi. Before Iruka could retort back, Sarutobi cut in.

"Now, now Iruka, there is no need to yell at them. You are just as aware of Kakashi's lateness as I am." Iruka glanced at the Hokage before nodding and sitting back in his seat. "With that settled, I have a few missions here for you to complete. They're simple; milking some cows, helping Old Lady Kyoko-san, and finding a cat…. again."

"Ah, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said hesitantly, "I was wondering if you were willing enough to assign my team to a tougher mission. You see, they're becoming a bit restless with all these D-ranked missions. Perhaps there is a C-ranked mission that we can do instead?"

Sarutobi stroked his beard in thought, "Hmm, I suppose there is one C-ranked mission left. It's nothing too hard either."

"Hokage-sama, I must object." Iruka spoke out, "I was the teacher of these three, and I know their skill. I don't believe that they are ready for a higher mission yet."

"That's where you're wrong Iruka." Kakashi cut it, "I have been training with these three for about a month now, and I think they're plenty ready."

"Now, you two, calm down. I don't need you two starting a fight. I think it's reasonable to assign Team Seven a C-ranked mission." The old Hokage smiled as he watched Naruto and Sakura cheer. "Now, this mission is a simple one. You are to escort the bridge builder Tazuna back to the Land of Waves. It is essential that he makes it there safely; he is currently working on completing a bridge connecting Wave to the mainland. This will be economically beneficial to all the lands. Once there, your team is to watch over him until the bridge is finished, which should be within the next week."

Sasuke watched as Tazuna walked into the room- drunk just like before- and insulted Naruto about his height. A sudden nostalgic feeling overcame the Uchiha.

This mission was the first big mission that Team Seven would do; an A-ranked mission in the disguise of a C-ranked one. Sasuke knew it was going to be tough since he was the only one aware of the impending danger that was ahead, but Sasuke had a feeling that they were going to do just fine. Kakashi was not to be taken lightly, Naruto was quick on his feet, and Sakura would mostly be more determined to prove herself to the rest of the team.

From the side of the room, Sasuke watched as Sakura tried to keep Naruto from punching the bridge builder in the face by putting him in a choke hold while Kakashi looked bored and showed no signs of breaking the two up. Sasuke was sure that they were going to be fine- no matter how much of a disorganized they appeared to be.

_Seems like it's time for this story to really get rolling now. _Sasuke smirked to himself.

* * *

**So sorry this took so long to be posted! Raven (my beta) went out of the country for a week, so I had to wait to get this to her. I've also had a bit of some personal problems coming up recently as well as a lot of end-of-the-school-year work being put on me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE FOR ALL PREVIOUS READERS!  
I have edited the first chapter because I found a more comfortable moment in time for Sasuke to go back in. Yes, I removed the secret shinobi. It was just too complicated to work with considering the new starting point I was doing. I did have another idea for what could happen, but it would cause more headaches to try to explain everything and make it seem realistic. If I ever get the motivation, I could always make it a separate story.**

**I also edited it so it fits in more with the canon plot. It will have an effect on the story so I hope you go back and re-read the chapter. I may also edit a few things the chapters 2-3, but it will be so small and somewhat pointless that you won't need to re-read those chapters.**

**Review Replies: Some semi-important information, mainly about pairings in the story.**

**vincent1875****: Thank you for your opinion. I did take note of some of the things you pointed out, and tried to clear them up in this chapter. Some of the others things are just how decided I wanted to write it. It is my story, but thank you for your helpful input.**

**Shiratsubasa****: Yes, friendship stories are always wonderful. As far as romance goes, I'm not really planning on having any romance right now- they are twelve. So at this point in the story it will just be the standard childhood crushes and stuff- most likely canon ones too like SasuSaku, NaruSaku, and NaruHina. Although, depending on how I decided to portray part two of this story- meaning Shippuden- there probably will be a larger emphasis on romantic bonds between the characters. Parings for when I get there are unknown because I am not sure what I would want to do. I could go the more canon route or the more crack route. I'm fine with doing either, but I will cross that bridge when I get there. Though, I would love to hear what you my readers would want to see. Canon or Crack parings? Examples? Your pairings? Let me know in your review!**

**Thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and alerting! I'm glad you all like my story so much. Sorry again for slow updates, I'm trying my hardest! If you have any questions you can direct them to my tumblr- sirknightmaxy –since I'm most active there, but you can still leave them in a review or message here on FFN. Thank you for your time. **


	5. AN Apologies and Chapter 5 Preview

**Hey everyone, I'm really sorry, but this isn't a chapter-not a full one anyway. I just want to apologize for my long absence. It's the last few weeks of school where I am and I have a lot of test, finals, homework, and projects to work on so I have't been able to find time to properly sit down and work on this story. All my Regents exams will be done and over with on June 12th. After that I'm free to work on the chapters as I like and updates will come more frequently. If you all can just hold on until that date I would appreciate it very much. I actually have some notes made in my school notebooks about what I want to happen on this story so I'm not abandoning it at all. **

**Since author note only chapters aren't allowed on FFN, below is my rough draft of what Chapter 5 was going to be. Be warned that it has not been proof read by anyone but me-and I'm far from good at grammar or spelling. Also, it is highly possible that it will be changed around by the time the final copy come out. So don't just skip over it when the Chapter does come out.**

**Once again, I'm very sorry for this long wait, but school comes before fanfiction writing. I hope you all understand. Thank you for your time.**

* * *

An hour later, Team Seven and Tazuna were walking down the path that lead out of the village of Konoha and towards the Land of Waves. Naruto would occasionally run ahead and shout back that everyone else was too slow. Sakura would then proceed to chase him while waving her fists around, telling him to shut up. Tazuna would question his decision to choose Konoha as his place of guard every time as Kakashi would dully reassure him while he read orange book.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was carefully looking around at his surroundings. He was trying to locate the puddle of water that the Demon Brothers were supposed to hiding in. This time around, Sasuke wanted more than just Kakashi being aware of the present danger. Sweeping his eyes across the ground in front of them, Sasuke located the puddle of water a few yards in front of them to the side of the road.

Naruto choose this time to run ahead of the others again.

"Come on you guys! I want to get to Wave soon! You move way too slow!"

"You idiot, ever heard of something called preserving your energy!?" Sakura shouted back, "You're just going to tire yourself out before we even leave the Fire Country!"

"Aw, come on Sakura-chan. You have got to me excited too! This is our first C-ranked mission and we're traveling outside of Konoha!"

"Traveling outside of Konoha isn't that much of a big deal!"

"Sure it is! I've never been out of Konoha before, this is going to be some awesome!" Naruto jumped up and down while punching the air. Sakura just sighed.

"Watch it Naruto," Sasuke cut in, "We don't need you stepping in that puddle. You'll probably complain about how you got wet or something stupid like that." Sasuke smiled to himself, proud of his inconspicuous mention of the water puddle, but all his positive thoughts vanished when Naruto and Sakura crouched down in front of the puddle. That was not something he was ready for. He needed to move quickly.

"Why would there be a water puddle now?" Sakura asked as she looked at her refection of the puddle. "It's the middle of the dry season." Immediately after Sakura had spoken, one of the Demon Brother's gauntlets flew out of the water's surface and right towards the two surprised genin.

Sasuke grabbed his teammates' collars and pulled them away from the poison claw. He heard Sakura yell out in pain. Looking towards the female member of their team Sasuke saw a long gash across her leg. Looking back in the direction of the puddle, Sasuke saw that both brothers-Gozu and Meizu- has fully emerged from their hiding spot.

"Looks like our camouflage didn't work to well, Meizu."

"Appears so, Gozu, but it doesn't matter now. They're dead either way."

The two ran towards the three genin on the ground. Naruto jumped up and charged at the two, drawing a kunai from his weapon pouch along the way. He clashed his Meizu's claw; the sharp noise of metal on metal rang thought the air. Gozu took this moment to circle around the two; their conjoined shuriken chain closing in on them. Meizu jumped out of the space and pulled at the chain to tighten it around the blonde.

The brothers' attacked failed when Kakashi jumped over Naruto and yanked him out from between the deadly chains. Kakashi swiftly threw two kunai at the chains and pinned them to the ground- though he knew it wouldn't hold them there for long. Kakashi leaped back towards Sasuke and Sakura, Naruto in tow.

"Sakura, I know you're hurt, but you need to protect Tazuna. It's crucial that he doesn't get killed. Sasuke, Naruto, I want you two to cover the sides. Just follow my lead."

Nodding, Sakura pulled herself to her feet and stood tall in front of Tazuna. Sasuke and Naruto agreed as well and took stances on either side of their sensei.

Meizu and Gozu had pulled themselves free at this point and were running towards the three shinobi again. Right before they got too close, Kakashi quickly weaved several hang signs and slammed his hands down on the ground. "Earth Style: Mud Wall jutsu!" A large stone wall with several dog heads carved on it sprang out from the ground between the two brothers, effectually catching their chain on it.

Without a second thought, Meizu and Gozu detached the chains from their gauntlets and continued charging towards Naruto and Sasuke. From the claws' tips, poison was glistening.

"Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!" A sudden stream of fire shot out of Sasuke's mouth forming a large fireball and went hurtling towards Meizu.

Since the fireball jutsu was a head on attack that moved in a linear attack, it was easy for Meizu to doge. Unfortunately for the rouge shinobi, he was not prepared for the sudden hands that shot out of the ground from below him. Grabbing him by the ankles, Kakashi pulled the mist shinobi into the ground until only his head was visible.

"Earth Style: Hidden Mole jutsu!"

"I could have handled him."

"Ah yes, I know, but I'd rather not risk having more of you injured right at the start of the mission." Kakashi said with a lazy smile. "Now pardon me. I have a blond haired student who is in need of my assistance."

Turning around, Sasuke saw that Naruto was trying to hold Gozu down with his shadow clones while at the same time punch him in the face. To say the least, it didn't look like it was going very successful considering the amount of cones that were being dispelled.

Kakashi took Gozu's distraction in stride; leaping behind him, Kakashi made a quick strike at Gozu's neck and the enemy was immediately on the ground out cold.

Once the danger was dispelled, everyone seemed to relax just a bit. Kakashi tied the Demon Brothers up- making sure bother were knocked out- and sent a message back to Konoha though Pakkun. Naruto meanwhile was hollering and screaming that Sakura was going to die because she got hurt.

"Naruto, shut up! I'm not going to die! I just hurt my leg, that's all!" Sakura snapped angrily at the blond having reached her annoyance peak. "I just need to wrap it and I'll be fine."

"But Sakura-chan, didn't you see? Those claws had poison on them!" Naruto yelled franticly, "Who knows what kind it is! You could go blind, or numb, or become paralyzed. Or worse! You could die!"

"Now Naruto," Kakashi intervened, "There is no need to get all worked up. From the looks of the wound, it doesn't seem to be poisoned." The jounin's eyes looked over to Sakura, "You're lucky, Sakura. If it was poisoned you'd surely be in a lot of trouble. You have to be more careful in the future. Understand?"

Sakura nodded meekly as she wrapped some bandaged around her leg. The cut was shallow, but long; stretching form her ankle to knee. "I'm fine, Kakashi-sensei. It's just a scratch. Let's finish the mission."

"Whether we continue on with this mission or not is not up for discussion yet." Kakashi turned a strict eye to Tazuna. "What is up for discussion is who exactly is after you. Do you mind explaining why two of the Land of Wave's rouge ninja are after you?"

Tazuna nervously swallowed a lump in his throat.


End file.
